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TEXANA READS: A look at Latinos who have excelled in many sports

“More Than Just Peloteros” rips that assumption apart with a series of academic essays that prove Latinos play other sports and excel. Indeed, Latinos are much more than “Peloteros (baseball players).”

With the team rosters in the baseball professional leagues laden with Spanish surnames, one would believe that baseball is the sport of preference for Latinos in the United States.

“More Than Just Peloteros” rips that assumption apart with a series of academic essays that prove Latinos play other sports and excel. Indeed, Latinos are much more than “Peloteros (baseball players).”

This is an enlightening book that is much more than a series of stories on sports personalities. Some of the essay titles will lure the South Texas sports aficionados deeper into the book. “Friday Night Rights” is about Mexican American youth gaining acceptance on the Texas high school football fields. “Quarterbacking While Mexican” will have fans reviewing the careers of their favorite Latino QB. Other essays detail the role of Latinos in sports dating back to Colonial San Antonio and traversing the nation to boxing in New York City, high school basketball in Arizona and baseball in the barrios of 1930 Chicago.

Among the sterling essays is a contribution by Jorge Iber that should be of much interest to South Texans. In “Mexican Americans of South Texas Football: The Athletic and Coaching Careers of E.C. Lerma and Bobby Cavazos,” Iber examines the trials and tribulations of two of the area’s most iconic athletes.

Lerma and Cavazos were trailblazers in South Texas and overcame many obstacles and discrimination to prove their worth as true athletes and, in particular, football players. Both played their high school football in Kingsville at a time when it was a rarity to see a Mexican American play on varsity, much less start and star.

Everardo Carlos Lerma was born in Bishop and later moved to Kingsville with his family. His goal was to play football for the Brahmas. When he took to the field in 1933, he was the only Spanish-surnamed player on the team. Mexicans simply did not do this – play football – the essay claims. Lerma survived and was the only Brahma to earn All-District honors his senior year. He was an end.

Lerma turned down a scholarship offer from TCU and elected to play for Texas A&I in Kingsville, where he was also a trailblazer in football. He lettered for the Javelinas from 1935 to 1937, becoming an integral part of A&I’s legendary football teams. When the team was on the road, Lerma was often taunted and suffered physical attacks and disparaging remarks from opponents, but his coach and teammates protected him. He went on to stellar coaching careers at Benavides and Rio Grande City.

Lerma’s Benavides teams were some of the all-time best in South Texas. The Eagles earned four district titles, were bi-district champs three times and earned two regional titles (the farthest small classification teams could advance at the time). The Eagles had undefeated seasons in 1943 and 1949.

At Rio Grande City, Lerma revived the Rattlers football program. RGC became a Rio Grande Valley and Laredo area powerhouse. Lerma retired from coaching with a 154-98 record and 13 championships. The football stadium in Benavides is named in his honor,

Cavazos was vaquero royalty in South Texas. The son of King Ranch foreman Lauro Cavazos, he went on to storied careers at Kingsville High School and Texas Tech University. He, too, faced obstacles but persevered, earning second-team All-American honors while leading the Red Raiders to 35-13 win over Auburn in the Gator Bowl in 1954.

Iber’s examination into these two iconic South Texas athletes is presented academic style with an ethnographic review of how Mexican Americans were treated in that era. Lerma, for example, was viewed as not being physical enough to play football and not smart enough to be a head football coach.

Joel Huerta follows up in another essay and concludes players like Lerma and Cavazos were transitional figures for Latinos athletes in Texas, and perhaps nationwide. He notes they were actually fighting for “Friday Night Rights.”

Other essays are just as intriguing. They examine the contributions of Latino athletes’ acceptance in the sports world. Assessment of the careers of Ricardo “Pancho” Gonzalez, boxer Kid Chocolate and college and pro quarterback Mark Sanchez add to the understanding of the strife many Latino players endured on their road to acceptance and stardom.

The essay on Sanchez is superb. Iber examines “The Perils of ‘Quarterbacking While Mexican’.” Sanchez was an extraordinary athlete at University of Southern California – also known as “Quarterback U.” Sanchez – a fourth generation American whose heritage traces back to South Texas – was proud of his Mexicano heritage. In a game against Notre Dame in 2007, he wore a mouthpiece featuring the colors of the Mexican flag. In spite of a resounding 38-0 win over the Fighting Irish (ironic, no?), he was criticized mercilessly for his “crime.”

The goal of this well-thought-out collection of essays was to provide a scholarly analysis of Latinos in the history of American sport. The editor asserts that, until recently, it has been sorely underrepresented.

This book of scholarly essays will do much to shorten the gap.

About the book

“More Than Just Peoloteros”

Edited by Jorge Iber

2016 – Texas Tech University Press, Lubbock, Texas

ISBN: 978-0-89672-908-7

326 pages

Cost: amazon.com, pbk: $39.95 and down.

About the editor

Jorge Iber was born in Havana, Cuba and raised in the Little Havana neighborhood of Miami, Florida. He taught in the public schools of Miami-Dade County for five years before pursuing a PhD at the University of Utah. He currently serves as associate dean in the Student Division of the College of Arts and Sciences and professor of history at Texas Tech University in Lubbock.

His initial academic focus was on Mexican American history, but over the past 15 years or so has shifted research interests to examine the story of Mexican Americans/Latinos and their participation/role in the history of US sports.

He is the author/co-author/editor of 10 books and numerous scholarly and encyclopedic articles. His most recent project is a full-length biography of Mexican American former MLB pitcher Mike Torrez (he of the pitch to Bucky Dent in the 1978 playoff game between the Boston Red Sox and the New York Yankees).

Texana Reads

This weekly column focuses on new and old books about Texas or related to Texas. It includes fiction and nonfiction books, reports on political and sports books as well as cultural or historical works. The common thread among these books is their relationship to Texas, specifically South Texas.
For suggestions on topics or books, email manuelf78407@yahoo.com.